Alexander Shulgin has had a stroke. Shulgin introduced ecstacy to the world, discovered hundreds of psychedelic and other drugs. i.e. he massively improved the world, but in a way that he couldn’t easily monetize without winding up in jail. He’s poor, ill and in the US — thus having trouble paying his medical bill. Donations accepted here, Erowid also has a collection for archiving his papers.

Vodafone choose the wrong moment to play with twitter. Makes me wonder: what is the sensible thing for an unpopular company to do with an online public? Just hide?

At some level many companies have to make a choice: try to be popular, or just hunker down and rake in the cash. If the rich-but-repulsive strategy now has the added cost of being laughed off the internet, that’s probably a good thing. I guess.